Thursday, June 25, 2015

This is the sixth in a series of stories about my
friend Sam, former owner of the Premium Fireworks Company. He was sentenced to
18 months in minimum-security prison (unjustly) for selling fireworks for which
he did not have a valid license to sell. If you want to start the series from
the beginning:

Sam
has been in prison now 13 months of his 18-month sentence. The Department of
Corrections let him know recently he was eligible for early release (through a
bizarre and byzantine set of qualification rules no one understands; although
I’m not questioning them now). A few days ago I was able to pick up Sam from
his minimum-security prison and take him to a halfway house back in this area.

Sam’s
sister, Janet, and my and Sam’s mutual friend Jennifer* met me at 5:30am in
order to drive three hours south to the prison. We had to be there by 9:00am to
drive him directly back to town by 12:30pm. Most prisoners take the bus to a
halfway house, but a relative or close friend can drive them with special
permission. To get that permission, I had to jump through all kinds of hoops. I
had to email copies of my driver’s license and an insurance card a few weeks
back immediately to the DOC with
around an hour’s notice. In addition, I had to provide details on my car down
to how much change was in the ashtray. I scanned my license and insurance card,
which was recently expired, but said I would have a current one when I arrived
at the prison.

Janet, Jennifer and I had
some deep conversations on the three-hour drive south. A main topic was
favorite 1960s sitcoms ... Janet was an I
Love Lucy girl (I didn't have the heart to tell her Lucy was from the 1950s). Jennifer preferred I
Dream of Jeannie. Those are fine, but the greatest ‘60s sitcom was of
course The Andy Griffith Show. I
shared that anecdote recently with my comedian friend David, and his reply was,
“Do you know why everyone on The Andy
Griffith Show was so happy all the time? Why? Because all of the characters were single!” True. I think
Otis was married, but he spent his nights drunk in a city jail cell, so I suppose he
found relief his own way. But I digress.

We discussed Sam’s mental health and
if he would be allowed to return home for the rest of his sentence. He has to be
incarcerated until August 10th, either at the halfway house or at
home. In this case, the entire halfway house business is nonsense. Halfway
houses are effective for folks with no place to live and no job. They offer
education, social assistance and a step up to reintegrate back into society.
Sam is a successful businessman with a home and large support system. Sending
him to a halfway house instead of home (probably to make room for real
criminals at the prison) was yet another insult and unnecessary punishment.
Indeed, Sam suspected he might be able to “check in” to the halfway house and
go home almost immediately. That happened to someone else he knew a few weeks
back, so it was a possibility.

We arrived at the prison in plenty of time. Sam
was being released from the maximum-security building; I had never been there
before. When we pulled up, Sam’s meager belongings were already gathered
outside the door in perforated white sacks and he was in the lobby. He was
ebullient about getting out, even unsure where he was going. Then it was the
usual bureaucratic “hurry up and wait” scenario, with lots of papers to be
filled out and officials consulted. No one ever spoke to me or asked me for my
driver’s license or updated insurance card. I could have arrived in a clown car
for all they cared.

Due to the delays, we were a bit late getting on the road.
Sam was like a kid on Christmas day, unfamiliar with the area (we were all very
familiar with it by now, a remote Kentucky town) and taking in the feeling of
(temporary) freedom. It was the first time he had been in a car in thirteen
months. I put down the windows and let the air blow. Freedom. The trip flew by,
with all of us catching up and chatting like old women. Sam received several
pre-planned phone calls, from his family and from our mutual friend Kenneth,
who lives in Viet Nam. Sam desperately wanted to stop and get a real hamburger,
not one that still had marks from where the jockey was hitting it. But
ultimately we decided not to take any chances getting to the halfway house on
time.

We arrived back in Northern Kentucky. The halfway house was over the
river on a hill in a seedy part of town, next to other older homes now used for
various government functions. We all got out and entered the lobby. The staff
seemed polite and helpful. But there was no chance of going home that day, or
in the immediate future. Of course there was all sorts of government red tape to
wrangle with, mandatory classes to attend and visits with his caseworker.
Again, these are legitimate functions for some folks who need such help. Sam
didn’t and it was a total waste of city and state resources. Visiting hours are
on weekends from 1-5pm, but visitors had to have yet another background check
and be approved before visiting. I was just approved to visit a federal prison,
why did I have to be approved again to visit a halfway house? Answer: It’s the
rule and one size fits all. We left Sam with some reading material and promised
to bring him some clothes from home and a cell phone, which he was allowed to
have.

It’s been a few days and Sam is staying put for now. After approval from
his caseworker, parole officer and the DOC, and a home inspection, he may be
able to go to home incarceration until his August 10th deadline. After
that he’ll be on probation for three years. Meanwhile, this former adjunct
college professor has to sit through mandatory classes on how to write a resume
and how to shake hands and look someone in the eye at a job interview. A huge
waste of time and resources, but try telling that to the government.

To
conclude, overall a good day. Sam tasted freedom for a few hours. He may be
able to come home soon. The halfway house allows a lot more flexibility than
prison. And visitors are allowed to visit and order food from local
restaurants; we can finally enjoy a meal together. He has a cell phone and we
talk regularly. He’s much better off than he was a week ago, and my friend is a
half hour away rather than three hours. We’re all a little happier with the
current situation.

Friday, June 19, 2015

Former Govenator Arnold Schwarzenegger dresses up as his Terminator character to walk the streets of Los Angeles and pose as a wax figure at Madame Tussauds. And proceeds to scare the bejeebers out of people and show his funny side. Hilarity ensues!

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

I confess to not being a Jake Gyllenhall fan; he’s probably my
second least favorite actor after Ben Affleck. But I have to admit he does an
acceptable job on this film; an expose of nightly news and the freelance
videographers (“Nightcrawlers”) who capture footage of accidents and shootings
and sell it to the highest bidding news station. “If it bleeds, it leads,” is
how fellow Nightcrawler Joe Loder (Bill Paxton in a cameo role) sums up the
local news manifesto.

Gyllenhall plays Louis
Bloom, one of the best-realized sociopaths put on film. Louis has no empathy
for anyone, including the victims whose faces he sticks his camera into, or his
lone employee (and verbal punching bag), a young man named Richard. Louis is a
thief, a liar, and man whose interest in life stops at his own wants and
desires. He develops a symbiotic relationship with TV news Director Nina Romina,
played by a much missed Rene Russo. Louis brings Nina the worst and bloodiest
of Los Angeles filth, night after night. He gets the dirty money shots no one
else brings in, and she insists on showing them, despite some of her
co-worker’s protests. Management looks at the ratings and has no objection.

During
the TV ratings “sweeps” period, pressure is on Nina and Louis to bring in
something special, a career-making bloody lede. It comes in the form of a home
invasion and family murder, where Louis beats the cops to the scene and gets
some truly disgusting images. His demands to Nina for the footage show his true
colors; he even demands a physical relationship with her, which he justifies as
being in line with how the station relates to their viewers. Even I almost
bought it!

Gyllenhall transforms himself physically for the role, losing what
looks like a dangerous amount of weight. Add to that loose clothes and a creepy
smile on his face at all times and he really comes off as an unhinged lunatic
with a camera, unleashed on a cold and uncaring city. Nightcrawler is a satire of the entire local news industry, and
contains more than a shred of truth. It is definitely worth watching.

Sunday, June 14, 2015

I do love crime fiction, history and comic books. No one combines them
better than writer/artist/auteur Rick Geary. Geary has a mountain of important
work behind him; mostly multiple volumes of the 19th Century
Treasury of Murder and 20th Century Treasury of Murder. These two
recent books are a departure from his usual subject material, but still tangentially
related.

The True Death of Billy the Kid is nonfiction, and the first
Kickstarter campaign to which I contributed. The results are well worth it. The
graphic novel is subtitled, “Being an authentic narrative of the final days in
his brief and turbulent life.” An accurate description. This beautifully
designed hardcover is typical Geary, explaining who his subject was, the major
players in the drama, and the setting in which the action takes place. Geary
weaves through the legends, the tall tales and the claims Billy actually lived
after his supposed death, and strips them to verifiable facts and likely
outcomes.

Billy, whose real name was Henry McCarty, was born in 1859 in the
Irish slums of New York. Moving West for new opportunities, his stepfather
abandoned Billy and his siblings the instant their mother died. What follows is
a sad life of criminal behavior and constant brushes with jail and the law. The
book is mainly concerned with the events of 1881, in which Billy is captured
and sentenced to hang. He escaped the jail and the gallows, killing deputies
Bob Olinger and James Bell along the way. There is particular poison between
the Kid and Olinger, whom he guns down and murders out of spite.

Fleeing into
the southwest, Billy winds up hiding with a Spanish couple who are longtime
friends. Feeling safe but paranoid, he carries his six-shooter everywhere. Lawman
Pat Garret has sworn to take Billy in to hang, and tracks him to his hideout
with two deputies. After a middle of the night shootout (there are several
versions to the story, probably leading to all the claims of a live Billy
later), Billy lies dead on a cabin porch, with Garrett blowing smoke from his
gun barrel. Being a folk hero in town, Billy’s admirers don’t take his death
well. You can visit Billy’s grave today, in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

Geary’s
art is a clean, expressive style perfect for history-based stories. He lays out
the facts in a clear informative design that exudes drama and excitement when
it needs to. An outstanding and enlightening work.

Rating: ***** out of 5 stars

Louise Brooks: Detective is a true departure for Geary, a mystery graphic novel
featuring historical characters. Louise Brooks was a real actress in early
Hollywood who dated Charlie Chaplin and popularized bangs. Her work has a
following among early film buffs.

Art from Louise Brooks: Detective

In this story, when Louise’s career begins to
fade (as it did in real life) she retreats to her hometown of Wichita, Kansas
to move back in with her parents. Relations with her parents are strained, and she
struggles with her business, a dance studio she opens with a partner. When she discovers
a reclusive playwright she admires lives in the nearby city of Burden, she
makes plans to visit him. When she does, a body is discovered on his property,
a man who just happens to be the fiancée of Louise’s friend Helen. What was the
connection? Does it have anything to do with the hitchhiker Helen and her fiancée
Walden picked up that day?

Geary proves to be as adept at fiction as he is with
nonfiction, the man is a born storyteller. He unravels the mystery slowly and
leads to a logical and satisfying ending. Another great story from Rick Geary.

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

No one would be more surprised than Stan Lee and
Jack Kirby that people were still reading their superhero stories 50 years
after they were published. The public is not only reading them, but enjoying
slick reprint packages, seeing blockbuster movies based on them, and new
Avengers comics are still being published. The
Avengers was one the most outright fun Lee/Kirby collaborations, and this
Epic Collection reprints issues 1-20, covering years 1963 to 1965 of the title.
I’ll tell you right now, it’s a 5-star book.

Kirby art from Avengers

Issue #1 is one of the most
famous, and expensive, Marvel Comics ever published. It relates how the
Avengers; Thor, Iron Man, Giant-Man and the Wasp, come together through the machinations
of Thor’s evil half-brother, Loki. Loki tricks the Hulk into a violent rampage
and the heroes are all pursuing him separately. They band together to capture
him and find out he’s not such a bad guy. Next they decide to form a team,
including the Hulk. The lovely and winsome Wasp gives the team their avenging appellation.
The Hulk turns out to be a prickly pear and leaves the team to commit more
destruction by issue #2. Joined by the Sub-Mariner, another on again/off again
hero/villain, they fight the Avengers to somewhat of a standstill for the next
two issues. Issue #4 is the game-changer and probably my second-favorite comic
book of all time; the reintroduction of Captain America to the Marvel Universe.

The Avengers thaw Captain America

When a figure frozen in a block of ice washes up in the Arctic, the Avengers
take a submarine to investigate. They defrost Steve Rogers, still in his Cap
outfit under his military fatigues. Rogers has been missing since World War II,
and instantly joins and becomes the heart of the team. This was the missing
piece that made Avengers the jewel
in Marvel’s crown. In the next few issues, the Avengers go on to fight Baron
Zemo and his henchmen the Masters of Evil; Black Knight and the Radioactive Man.
Zemo was responsible for Cap’s “death” in WWII and the real death of his kid
partner Bucky. Cap is determined to make him pay and drags the rest of the team
out to find him.

Avengers #8

With the reintroduction of Cap, Kirby and Lee start a forest
fire of concepts, ideas and characters. In issue #7 they introduce Asgardians
the Enchantress and her pet killer the Executioner, then in issue #8 the
time-travelling villain Kang. Issue #9 is the famous Wonder Man tale, as Zemo grants
a dying man super powers, only to force him to kill the Avengers to stay alive.
As a moral man, Simon Williams struggles with the decision, only to sacrifice
himself for the lives of the team (not to worry, 10 years later he gets
better). This is also the issue where Dashin’ Don Heck takes over the art from
Kirby. I’ve read that Stan didn’t like Heck’s layouts, so he later had Kirby do
them with Heck’s finishes. I can’t say I agree; Heck was different than Kirby
but has a dynamic style well-suited to superhero battles.

Cap vs. Zemo: To the Death!

In issue #10, Lee and
Kirby pit the team against Immortus, a future version of Kang (got it?) and
Heck’s art is powerful and effective. Spider-Man stops by in issue #11, or at
least a robot doppelganger sent by Kang until the real Spider-Man ... oh, just
go read it. These are endlessly fun stories. Avengers #13 introduces Count
Nefaria, later part of one of the best Avengers storylines of all time. At the
end of the story the Wasp is severely injured and the team tracks down a
specialist who saves her in issue #14. Issue #15 brings many storylines to a
close as Zemo is finally (and permanently) defeated. Cap didn’t directly cause
his violent death, but let’s say he doesn’t lose any sleep over it.

Issue #16
is another game-changer as the exhausted original charter members of the team
take a leave of absence and the book is infused with new blood. Captain America
leads new members Hawkeye, Quicksilver and his sister the Scarlet Witch, all
formerly thought of as villains, in Avengers 2.0. Lee and Kirby were never
afraid to change up the membership of the team when they wanted to shake things
up. This led to constant new ideas and new relationships to play off each other.
They fight together for a few issues (the Mole Man, the Commissar) with Cap and
Hawkeye invariably at each other’s throats. The collection ends with the appearance
of the Swordsman, a villain who infiltrates the team pretending to be a hero.

New blood on the team from Avengers #16

Avengers #19

Lee’s
characterization of this version of the team is perfect, and pits the sarcasm
and mistrust of authority of Hawkeye against the arrogance of Quicksilver and
the lack of self-esteem of the Scarlet Witch. It was risky to remove all of the
popular A-list heroes from the book, but the risk pays off beautifully as the new,
disparate personalities learn to work together. Especially enjoyable is Hawkeye’s
endless verbal and physical sparring with Cap over every decision; but as soon
as the Swordsman says something negative about Cap, a spitting furious Hawkeye
wants to duel to the death. Hawkeye’s love and respect for Cap is overwhelming,
he’d just never admit it.

It’s incredibly fun and rewarding to read the origin
of comics’ premier superteam. These goofy and disposable superhero stories from
a bygone era of Russkie spies and underground despots still manage to resonate
with readers today. They may not be as sophisticated as some modern stories, but with their mix of both pure hearted and feet-of-clay heroes, they
tend to be much more enjoyable.